Charles Jones

The AI boom is usually framed as a race to build more computing power. But what if compute isn't the product at all? Pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers, traders and carmakers are not buying chips for their own sake. They are buying faster discovery, faster iteration and faster decision-making. In other words, they're buying time. The investment implications may be more nuanced than many headline narratives suggest.

The S&P 500's P/E has dipped below 20x, proof, the story goes, that blistering earnings growth justifies this year's rally. However, swap accounting profits for actual cash, and the index is trading above 25x FCF, with the gap between the two multiples wider than it's been in years.

In our July 2026 webinar, we review recent fund performance, portfolio activity and the evolving investment backdrop.